Forever Again
by jennylovestowrite
Summary: Thirty-five years ago, Katherine and Michael thought they would be together forever... Was it a love of a lifetime, the beginning of a lifetime of love, or something even more?
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This is a continue to Judy Blume's book _Forever._ A year or so after the book was published, a TV movie came out, based on it. So this story is more of a continue of the movie, but if you haven't seen it, it doesn't really matter, because they are very similar (except for a few things, which I'll explain as time goes on. For example, the book and movie ended slightly differently. I prefer the movie ending, so I talk about that ending. It wasn't _that _different from the book (not one of those completely different endings.) Thanks for reading!

* * *

"Michael!" I shouted, as I jerked awake. Luckily for me, the sound it really made was more like "Umphff".

I glanced over at the sleeping form of my husband, Robert. We had been married for nearly thirty years now. He was usually such a light sleeper that the slightest noise woke him up, so I was glad to see that I hadn't been as loud as I thought I had been.

I sighed as I leaned up against the headboard of the bed. What had made me think about Michael? I hadn't thought of him in ages.

I started to close my eyes as I thought about when we had first met. It had been thirty-five years ago, at my friend Erica's cousin Sybil's New Year's party. I smiled as I thought about how young and carefree we had all been back then. Wondering if we were going to get into the college of our choice was the hardest decision we had to make.

Then I remembered. My dad had sent me to teach tennis for the summer, the summer between high school and college, and that was when Michael and I had drifted apart. For what reasons, I had never truly figured out. The only thing I had figured out at the time was the fact that at eighteen, _forever_ doesn't mean the same as it does when you're older. Although, as time goes by, I sometimes wonder if _forever _means _forever _for anyone anymore?

Knowing there was no way I would be able to go back to sleep now, I got up out of bed quietly and walked over to the closet. Up on the shelf in the back corner was a box of things that I hadn't been sure of what to do with when I had moved, first out of my parents house in the dorms, and then later into my own apartment, then to mine and Robert's first apartment, and well, so it went. It was just a small shoe box with twine wrapped around it, and if Robert ever wondered what was inside of it, he never mentioned it. Although I supposed he could have opened it when I wasn't home, but that was a different thought for a different day.

I opened the lid, dug around a little and there it was, right on top.

"_To Katherine, Forever, Michael." _

I remembered the day he gave it to me, the day I tried to offer it back to him, the day I put it in this box. At first I had wanted to throw it out, but then later was glad that I hadn't.

Thirty-five years. Had it really been that long? So many things had changed since then. But in some ways, it still felt like yesterday. I sat there holding the small disc and chain that he had given me so long ago, however, even though we had both definitely changed, it didn't look a day older than the day he had given it to me.

I looked deeper into the box, and pulled out the stack of letters that were tied together with a rubber band.

I eased the first one out of its envelope, and began to read.

_Dear Katherine, _

_I was happy to see you the other afternoon, and glad that we had a chance to talk. I had regretted that we had parted the way that we had, though at the time I wasn't sure how to fix things. After you left the other day, and once I got home, I realized that I had been out of line. I knew we had drifted apart, but I didn't to think it was my fault, so I blamed you. I realize now that it wasn't either of our faults, that it was just the way that things sometimes happen and you have to take them as they go. If you are in fact reading this letter, I take that as a sign that we could still be friends. I have included the address that I can be reached that summer, and do hope to hear from you. _

_Your friend, _

_Michael _


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Here is the long awaited chapter 2. This chapter has taken me so long to get started, because while I have had a lot of ideas for it, I kept debating on whether or not to put it from Michael's point of view, and then go back and forth between the two, but then ultimately decided to keep it all in Katherine's, since that was how the book was written. I am tryin to keep this as close to Judy Blume's style as possible. Please read and review!

P.S. If you have seen the movie, then you can see how the flashback is taken from that. However, I don't have access to it at the moment, so I didn't get it all exactly, but I hope to fix that soon.

* * *

I held the letter half folded next to me for a minute as I thought back to that day that he had been referring to.

_I had seen him riding up on his bike as I was headed across the parking lot. Before I even realized that I had done it, I waved and he rode over and stopped when he was right in front of me. _

"_Hi" I said, still smiling with that stupid grin on my face. _

"_Hi," he said, with a huge smile. _

"_I hope you have a good year at school, Michael," I said, a lack of anything better to say. _

"_You too," he said. _

"_When do you leave?" I asked. _

"_Next week." _

_I nodded. "I'm leaving around then, too, myself," I said. _

_"Oh, and by the way, I got that job in Vail..."_

_"Are you going to take it?" I asked, part of me hoping he'd say yes, that he wanted us to have a second chance, and part of me hoped he'd say no, that he'd turned it down, and then I wouldn't even be given a choice to think that. _

_"It all depends," was that all the he said and stopped. _

_There was a pause for a few moments while we both seemed to lack for something say. _

"_You know, I really feel good about things," he said. _

_Again, I could only nod. I wasn't sure if my voice would hold out if I tried anything else. _

"_Will you write me sometime?" he asked. _

"_Sure," I said. _

_Impulsively, I leaned to toward him, and he responded back with a hug. _

_There were so many things that I wanted to tell him, that I would never regret what we had had together, or for loving him, and that part of me still did, and probably always would. After all, they say a girl never forgets her first love. _

_We stayed that way for a moment, and then each pulled away at the same time. We stared at each other for a minute and then he sat back down on the bike and rode off, and I stared after him for a few minutes, thinking of all the things that I could have or should have said, and then slowly started walking home. _

_When I got there, my mother asked me if I had gotten everything I needed. _

"_Just about," I told her, thinking about how ironic those words were. _

_I was about to head up the stairs when she said, "Oh, and Kath…"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_Theo called."_

I sighed as I remembered Theo. I thought about how I had been attracted to him, and wondered why? After growing up and realizing that it was more the idea of him than him himself, it helped me understand, but at the same time, I had always sort of held an inward grudge against him, because indirectly, that was why Michael and I had broken up in the first place, although I knew it wasn't really Theo's fault. That was why, when I returned his phone call, we ended up seeing each other twice, but I knew that it wasn't going to go anywhere from there. There was always that little fact that I had in the back of my mind, as well as realizing that he was older that I was looking for, at least at that time.

I folded that first letter back up and put it back into it's envelope and pulled out the second.

_Dear Katherine, _

_I was happy to have received a letter back from you, and so quickly. I hope to be able to take that as a sign that we can still be friends. I know that the idea of that is probably awkward for you, because I will be honest and say that it's awkward for me. However, you were (are?) an important part of my life and a connection like the one that we had is to special to completely sever. You are my friend, Katherine, and I hope that you feel the same about me. _

_In some ways it feels as though we had spent a lifetime together, and in others, it feels as though ti were only a short time. I realize now that if being separated for a short time over the summer caused such a rift between us, that in the end, maybe it was the best thing for us. It's hard for me to admit that, and I don't want you to think that it means I didn't care for you, because that isn't the truth. But maybe it was better that it happened that way, and before it got too ugly for us to even stay friends. _

_Your friend, _

_Michael_

It was somewhere around the end of that letter when I felt tears coming down my face. That letter right there pretty much summed up everything. Everything I had been feeling then, been feeling now. The day I had gotten that letter, I felt as though he were talking to me, directly, and understood everything he said in it. I too was glad that we could at least be friends on some level. Maybe not best friends, but at least friendly. After all, he was the first guy I had loved, who I ha given myself to, body and soul. How could I ever forget something like that?

"_Well, this is it," my father said as he helped me with my things into my dorn. I couldn't believe that I was all the way in Denver. In a way, it didn't even feel quite right for me to be here, because after all, this was part of my old life. What was I doing here, really? So far from my family, from my friends? Would I really be happy here? _

I didn't know it then, but going to Denver would end up being the best thing that had ever happened to me.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: You may have noticed that I only mentioned Theo in passing, and then quickly got rid of him. There are several reasons for that. One, I never cared for him much. Two, in the movie the guy who plays him looks like he's about 30 years old, and it just grossed me out (I'm Team Michael, lol). Three, I figured that chances of the two of them actually working out were small, and wanted this to be realistic. I got a brainstorm for many ideas for this story, and plan on implementing them soon, although I've got to get to that point. So after probably two more chapters, we should start moving to that point. Until then, happy reading!

* * *

I knew that I should have stopped reading right there. After all, what good was it doing me? All it was doing was bringing back memories, memories that I had tried to forget, over and over again, and failed miserably every time.

_Dear Katherine, _

_I'm glad to hear that school is going well for you. I have settled in nicely, here at the University of Vermont. I think I had told you that I had gotten that job in Vail…_

_It took me some time to come to a decision on whether or not to take…after all, with the way that things ended up, there was really no need for me to take off the winter semesters and therefore take summer school. So initially, I thought about declining the job. However, every time I sat down to say no, there was something stopping me, however. That made me stop and think about it for awhile, and so I decided to take the job after all. It will give me a chance to do what I love (teach skiing) as well as allow me to keep myself occupied during the summers. _

_I hope that you don't think that I'm out of line by continuing to write to you like this. It it bothers you, let me know, and I'll stop. There is just something about writing it all down and sending it to you that makes me smile. Ironic, isn't it? _

_Your friend, _

_Michael_

That had been the reason that I decided to keep the letters in the shoebox. I wanted to keep them around, the same way that I hadn't thrown out the necklace he'd given me or the letters he'd sent me during the summer. Even though there was no "forever" for us, as we had so naively believed there would be, it made me feel better.

I thought about how I had explained to my parents that Michael and I were no longer together when I came home from camp. They tried to hide it from me, but I could tell that there was a sigh of relif in their face, especially in my father's.

"_I'm not sure if the chance of scenery was a good idea or not, Roger. Have you seen the way that she has been in her own little world ever since she got back?"_

"_Diana, if it happened now, it was going to happen later. It's better this way. After all, now she can head to college with a clear head and not chasing after some boy." _

It angered me to hear them talking about me this way, especially when they claimed that they weren't sending me away because of me and Michael. I knew that it was the reason, but to hear them actually _say _it, and behind my back… it really hurt.

I sighed. There were so many what ifs that I nearly made myself sick thinking about all of them. I knew there was no use in thinking about them, but it's like the itch that you just can't scratch…it makes you crazy.

I folded the letter back up and replaced it in the envelope, and put it back into the stack. I kept digging around in the box, forgetting all of what was in there.

I could feel something that was stuck in the back of the box under the folds that I had forgotten I had shoved in the box. Though I had forgotten I'd shoved in the box, in haste, I remember quite well, I had never forgotten about _it. _

I sat, holding it in my hand, the small piece of plastic that fit in my hand, and stared at the pink lines. Two of them. Two pink lines that could only stand for two things. _Positive. _


End file.
